An Argentine court has granted "habeas corpus" to a female orangutan at the Buenos Aires Zoo and recognised basic rights for her as a "non-human individual" to live in semi-freedom with other large primates.
In an unprecedented ruling, the 2nd Appeals Court ruled that Sandra, a Sumatran orangutan, who has
spent 20 years at the zoo, may enjoy a large measure of freedom.
As she was born in captivity, she will not be released into the wild - but she is recognised as an individual with certain legal rights.
The ruling by three magistrates sets a precedent within Argentine jurisprudence, which to date considered animals to be things.
In Sandra's case, the court unanimously agreed, "starting from a dynamic and non-static legal interpretation, to acknowledge that the animal is an individual with rights, and therefore non-human individuals (animals) are possessors of rights, such that they are protected according to the appropriate measures".
